Blind curve on MBT at R St. NE DC

[LhasaCM]

@elbows 211808 wrote:

I’ve seen several close calls at the blind curve on the MBT, including this morning when a dimwit passed me by crossing into the opposing lane. Luckily, the oncoming cyclist was ready and swerved off of the trail.

Street view is old, but shows the curve.
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9126008,-77.0013748,3a,75y,88.49h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sDoZnkHdc0xTX-ihwiWThnA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Thoughts:
Nobody should be passing on a blind curve, particularly on a heavily used trail.
There should not be a blind curve here. The fence should not be blocked out. I don’t know what they’re trying to hide but it isn’t worth someone being injured Mirror is nice but not enough.

Haven’t seen someone go down yet, but the “almost” count is climbing!

FWIW – the curve is more gentle now than that street view shows, but that can also encourage faster traffic. The trail realignment that was done when Tanner Park was constructed made it less of a sharp zig zag and more of a curve/shift. The red line shows the old alignment (what you can see in the Street View), whereas the green line is the current path.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25416[/ATTACH]

My understanding is that the covering on the fence was added at the behest of the parks group to block the exhaust/debris from the Fort Myer lot from spilling out into the dog park and the trail. It is suboptimal from a visibility standpoint, and really, everyone needs to take care when going through there and go through more slowly than they do. I’ve had enough close calls with people making a sharp turn onto R or oblivious people with dogs (including one guy who, whenever I’ve seen him, *always* lets his dog off its leash half a block down R to gallop off to the dog park) that I always ride through there covering the brake, even if it seems empty. Honestly, that makes sense anyway given the increasing traffic that the park and nearby development has generated.

[sszibler]

Cyclists (or cars from what I’ve heard!) shouldn’t be entering from R St. without slowing and looking either. It’s blind from a few directions. But there does at least need to be some kind of signage there warning pedestrians and cyclists that it’s blind. I really don’t want to put my life in the hopes that the half of all cyclists that started riding in the last two years will be careful and slow down. They’re certainly not reading these posts. DDOT would respond to dangerous curves on shared traffic roads with signs and/or improvements and that must be done there as well. “Slow Down, Stay Right, Blind Curve” is a start.

[Steve O]

@sszibler 212029 wrote:

I really don’t want to put my life in the hopes that the half of all cyclists that started riding in the last two years will be careful and slow down. They’re certainly not reading these posts.

I cannot agree with this more. Hoping that drivers, people on bikes or on foot or otherwise will magically start acting a certain way is trying to solve a problem with wishful thinking (hmm…sounds a bit like Arlington’s approach to Vision Zero). Actual, real changes need to be made if actual, real improvements are to occur.

[Author]

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